LAS VEGAS – HyunSung Park may be his own biggest critic because he wasn’t pleased with his performance which resulted in his eighth consecutive stoppage victory.
The undefeated Park (9-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) won the “Road to UFC” tournament in February, and picked up his first non-tournament win by TKO in the second round against Shannon Ross (13-9 MMA, 0-3 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 233.
“Nothing surprised me about him, but I surprised myself because I performed so bad,” Park told reporters through an interpreter at the post-fight news conference. “… Others may think it was a good performance, but for me, it didn’t meet my expectations. That was a bad performance from me and I’m going to go back and fix what was wrong.”
Aside from his professional debut, Park has finished every opponent he has faced. Regardless of the results, however, he seems to critical of his performances, thinking they didn’t “go well.” It was the same sentiment he shared in February after stopping SeungGuk Choi in the third round.
Additionally, traveling to Las Vegas and dealing with jet lag again was a burden the South Korean fighter hoped to avoid this time around. The event was originally scheduled to take place in Shanghai, China, but was moved to Las Vegas without a clear explanation.
“I had to pay a lot of taxes, and the time difference really killed me because the jet lag affected my performance,” Park said. “I’m not happy with my performance, and I’m going to do better next time.”
Whenever that next appearance may come, Park says he’ll be ready to take care of business. He plans to get right back into the training room to prepare for what he hopes is a busy 2024.
“I’m going to go right back into training, and next year I’m going to accept as many fights as possible,” Park said. “Whatever they give me, I’m going to try and be a good employee. This was just my first fight. I’m going to accept what they give me and accept as many fights as possible.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 233.
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